Sometimes animal science is a gas

Sometimes preceded by sound, other times completely unannounced, nothing interrupts a quiet evening in front of the television quite like a wafting contribution from the family dog — or for that matter a good night of sleep after the pooch gets into something digestively delightful that reemerges hours later as a cloud above the bed.

Anyone who spends time around critters is well aware that not only do they pass gas with careless abandon, they aren’t concerned about it in the slightest.

In the beginning a young pup may turn in surprise or even run to get away from an unexpected back-end noise, but dogs don’t think a thing of that whoosh of escaping air during a peaceful afternoon nap, nor do horses blink an eye at the sound effects that follow them as they jog across a field.

Nope, to animals, passing gas is just as casual and normal as drawing a breath — only going out, and from the opposite end, of course.

Within the human realm, however, it’s a subject not fit for polite conversation and elicits blushes and averted eyes.

Yet, whether it’s talked about or not, it’s safe to assume flatulence happens — or does it?

As it happens, species-specific flatulence — also known by the nonscientific moniker fart — is a pretty hot topic these days among scientific community members on social media and has garnered quite a bit of traditional media attention in the process.

It began when a family member asked a London zoologist if snakes fart. She turned to a fellow scientist on Twitter in search of an answer (incidentally, yes, apparently they do), and the internet sensation “#DoesItFart” was born.

It would be naïve to deny #DoesItFart has been encouraged by the giggling, mischievous inner-children of professional scientists and journalists around the world — really, how often do serious academics and professionals get to use the word fart in legitimate outlets?

However, rather than merely nudging at taboos, the gauche discussion is innocently predicated on sincere curiosity and scientists are gleefully responding, sharing their first-hand knowledge to help educate inquiring minds via creation of a public, spreadsheet-database of species and their gas.

Created around the first week of January, within less than 10 days of inception the gas-related capabilities of nearly 80 animals were catalogued in what appears to be an ever-growing crowdsource encyclopedia of all-things-gas.

Admittedly the project is informal, however there’s plenty of science taking place within the #DoesItFart conversation — clearly scientists observe gaseous events of all kinds in the course of their fieldwork, yet until now have rarely had opportunity to share those unique experiences.

Of course the list comes with humor, (how could it not) such as the claim unicorns produce glitter and rainbows, yes, the domestic dog does fart, however “often takes blame from nearby hominid” and an entry of “Not anymore” for the mastodon.

There are also plenty of entries complete with citations and facts — herring use the passage of gas for underwater communication; termites release so much methane, carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen they may contribute to global climate change and unexpelled digestive gasses can impair the swimming abilities of pupfish, leading to behavior changes and even death.

And among those unable to release gas the traditional way are mussels, clams, shore crabs and sea anemone (anemone do apparently burp).

Engaging minds and creating dialogue between regular folks and the scientific community — complete with enough jokes to make 8-year-olds (and scientists) around the globe laugh for some time — the #DoesItFart project may just prove the adage that the only stupid question is, indeed, the one not asked.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at: [email protected]